The war to control office communications in China began in earnest Monday, when Tencent Holdings Ltd. launched its Qiye Weixin, or Enterprise WeChat, app. As WSJ's Li Yuan writes in her "China Circuit" column:

The new app aims to protect the phenomenally successful WeChat franchise, and repel a threat from rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. It also offers to help Chinese separate work from life, a nettlesome problem that WeChat helped to create.

Alibaba is China’s e-commerce king, but has had little success with messaging and social-networking apps. Last year, it tried again with DingTalk, an office-oriented app that it says can “return focus to work.” Lest anyone miss the message, Alibaba last week posted online videos that portray WeChat as a source of distraction, stress and tardiness at work.

The rivalry between the companies is intense. Neither wants to let the other gain an upper hand in an emerging technology that could be a big future market. Business software is a hot arena, as Chinese companies seek efficiencies to offset rising labor costs. For now, both services are free, but analysts believe both Tencent and Alibaba can generate revenue from payment processing and other services.